There are thousands upon thousands of retirement homes around the country, and they vary greatly in quality. A great deal of these are private homes, but there are lots that rely wholly on funding from the government as well. I report last year from The Care Trust however found that the quality of government-run retirement homes was not good enough and suggested that something was done to bring them up the standard of most of the private homes.

Very recently the government has announced that they will increase their budget on retirement homes by 10% over the next 5 years. The money will be spent on getting new white furniture into the homes and improving the overall interior design and decorations to both modernise and brighten up the buildings.

Alistair Pride of The Care Trust was quick to point out that they did not have an issue with the cleanliness of the retirement homes. “We were actually very pleased with the overall cleanliness standard that was being maintained” noted Pride. “We just felt the many homes had not kept up with the times and the décor was very drab”.Everybody has the right to live in a nice environment and seeing as people in these homes cannot make the changes themselves, people have to take the initiative. He continued to say that they were very happy that the government had listened to their recommendations and they look forward to seeing the improvements.

The way the government has decided to tackle the problem is by creating specialist teams of designers and decorators to visit the homes. “The money could have been handed over to homes directly, but this way we can have experts on the case and improving with each project” suggested a government spokesman. Over the coming five years the teams will actually go to these homes and bring in new furniture like dining furniture. They will also be implementing colour schemes into the buildings and replacing old and decrepit items with new pieces like white wardrobes and dining chairs.